A celebration of cocktails that have been lost, forgotten or mutilated over time.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Exhibit #70: 3 Fizzes + 3 from Trader Vic

Brandied Peach Fizz $7#47. Cognac, peach flavored brandy, lemon juice, banana liqueur, a little sugar and club soda, up. Also known as a Georgia Peach Fizz.Marguerite Fizz $6#48. A minor variation on the basic gin fizz that cuts back the juice by half, replaces the sugar with grenadine and adds a dash of bitters: gin, lemon juice, pomegranate syrup, Angostura, club soda, up.

Rose in June Fizz $8#49. Dry gin, Chambord, lime and orange juices. Whereas most fizzes contain a half ounce of lemon juice only, this one contains 2.5 ounces of lemon and orange, so it is much more fruit-forward than most.

Rum Keg $8Matusalem Platino rum with a little bit of dark Jamaican rum and apricot liqueur, lemon and pineapple juices, passion fruit syrup and crushed ice. One of Trader Vic’s key drinks, and originally served at four times the size as a communal drink.

Samoan Fog Cutter $8Light rum, gin, cognac, lemon and orange juices, orgeat, and crushed ice with a sherry float. Along with the Mai Tai and Scorpion Bowl, the Fog Cutter was one of Trader Vic’s best known creations. The Samoan Fog Cutter is a 1950s reduction of the original Fog Cutter, cutting the original’s 3.5 ounces of hooch down by an ounce along with increased dilution. As the man himself said, “Fog Cutter, hell…after two of these you won’t even be able to see the stuff!”

Tortuga $9Overproof demerara and traditional rums, red vermouth, orange curacao, crème de cacao, pomegranate syrup, lemon, lime, and orange juices, crushed ice. As we’ve noted on previous menus, Vic spent a week at Bar la Florida in Cuba in the 1930s studying master daiquirist Constantine Ribailagua. He brought back that man’s signature drink, La Florida, and served it at his restaurants for many years. In the 1950s he used La Florida as the basis for this drink, which amplifies the rum quotient, adds orange and lemon juices and crushed ice, and is generally larger in scale. For comparison’s sake, we can also mix up La Florida cocktail for you.